Men's Basketball Slowed By Eagles
Dec 21, 2019
ST. PAUL, Minn, - The University of Dubuque men’s basketball team dropped the back end of a back-to-back on Saturday, falling to Northwestern St. Paul, 87-69.
Both teams were not having any trouble putting the ball in the basket early. The first half featured eight lead changes over the opening 10:25 and was all square at 26-26 with 6:50 to play in the opening half. It was Northwestern St. Paul who made the first big move, going on a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to jump ahead 36-26. The Spartans briefly got the deficit down to nine points but back-to-back three’s in the final 47 seconds of the half from the Eagles sent the Spartans into halftime down 15. The 15 point deficit was the largest halftime deficit of the season.
Peter Ragen had an efficient first half to lead the Spartans with nine points at the break. As a team, the Spartans shot just 11-29 (37.9%) in the half, while the Eagles went 19-36 (52.8%) from the field.
The Eagles lead would grow to as large at 19 in the early portion the second half before the Spartans started chipping away. UD went on a quick 8-0 burst to get the deficit down to 10 at the midway point of the second half to get themselves within shouting distance. UD would get within eight points at two different times, the last one coming with 7:13 remaining, however, Northwestern had a response each time to halt UD from getting any closer than that for the remainder of the game.
Peter Ragen would go on to lead the Spartans with 20 points on 7-14 shooting and a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line. Mitch Burger was the lone other Spartan to reach double figures with 11 points while also dishing out a team-high three assists. A key difference in the game was shooting from distance, UD struggled from three, making just 6-33 (18.2%), while the Eagles made 10-29 (34.5%). UD did outrebound Northwestern on the offensive glass, 8-4.
UD will be off until after Christmas when they head to the Wheaton Invitational on Dec. 30th-31st.
